


Three Shacks Just North of the Canadian Border

by Welfycat



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Canadian Shack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 07:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two by two, the team is forced to take refuge as they hunt an unsub through a Canadian forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Shacks Just North of the Canadian Border

Spencer Reid didn't curse.

That wasn't exactly true. Spencer Reid didn't usually curse. His mother had always been of the opinion that there were a great many words in many languages, and all of them had their appropriate uses. Mostly Spencer didn't curse because he felt that it was unprofessional and almost always unnecessary.

"Shit!" Spencer shouted as his knee, which still gave him a little bit of trouble in cold weather and treks over rough terrain, gave out as he slid down the snowy ravine and up to his thighs into a cold stream. The weather was cold, but apparently not cold enough for the ice covering the surface to support his weight.

"Reid?" Morgan called, his flashlight swinging in wide arcs around the snow covered valley. The second call was less curious and more concerned.

Spencer dragged himself back onto the bank and shivered miserably. At least he was too preoccupied with the skin of his feet and legs freezing to really notice how much his knee was hurting. "Down here!" he shouted, though the words were interrupted by his teeth chattering. He tried not to think of how quickly hypothermia would set in and how long he had before he might possibly become delirious. He pulled himself another few feet away from the water and looked up at the stars slowly filling the night sky. In Virginia the city lights obscured all but the brightest of the stars. Here, just barely over the Canadian border and on what felt like the edge of civilization - though there were multiple major cities relatively near by - the entire sky was brilliantly dotted with distant lights.

"Reid! Where are you?" Morgan shouted from somewhere to Spencer's left.

Realizing that he'd lost his flashlight, and his left shoe, in his unplanned descent, Spencer managed to find his phone in his jacket pocket. Thankfully it was still dry and functional. "By the stream. Look down!" He shouted again. He raised his phone above his head and thumbed one of the buttons every couple seconds to keep the light on.

There was a series of small thumping sounds as Morgan scrambled down the snowy incline.

"Okay there?" Morgan asked, his flashlight hovering on Spencer's soaked clothing.

"Been better," Spencer answered with his teeth chattering. "But good news. The unsub is not in the stream. I checked."

Morgan chuckled. "How thorough of you. Can you get up?"

Spencer looked down at his knee and considered the answer. He wanted to say 'yes, of course I can,' and just hop up to his feet. Three months in physical therapy told him this was a bad idea. "Not without some help," He settled on, and rolled so that he was on his stomach and pushed himself up on his good knee.

Morgan was there in within seconds and helping him the rest of the way up. "How soaked are you?" he asked, the first aid training they had all taken dozens of times asserting itself automatically.

"I need to get my wet clothing off as soon as possible," Spencer answered. He was already starting to experience some numbness.

"It's going to take them at least an hour to get a vehicle out here that can handle the terrain. Probably take less time if we just waited for our scheduled pick up. When we aren't at the drop off point, they'll radio and come looking for us," Morgan said. He swung his flashlight around again, pausing when he came upon a small structure on the edge of the woods. "Let's go."

"What if that's the unsub's hiding place?" Spencer asked, but moved with Derek anyway. It would be better to confront the unsub there than it would be to wait for him to come find them.

"Then we'll deal with it when we get there," Morgan said. "You're still armed right?"

"Yeah," Spencer said. The weight at his holster hadn't changed. "How did this ever seem like a good plan?"

"It wasn't my idea," Morgan said automatically.

They stopped speaking as they approached the shack. Morgan leaned Spencer up against the rough wooden wall and Spencer unholster his weapon the best he could as Morgan prepared to go inside.

"Clear," Morgan said from the doorway a moment later.

"You didn't even go inside," Spencer objected.

"Believe me, it's clear. I've been in larger walk-in closets." Morgan came back and helped Spencer hobble inside the shack.

Morgan was actually right on target with his assessment of the shack. Spotting a small pile of blankets, Spencer used the wall to make his way to them. "Hold one of these up. I need to get dry."

It took them about two minutes for them to realize that Morgan looking away and holding a blanket to preserve Spencer's modesty while Spencer attempted to undo the buttons on his pants with half frozen fingers was not going to work.

"You hold this," Morgan said, handing the blanket back to Spencer. "Put it loosely around your waist."

"I still need to get my pants off," Spencer objected, leaning heavily against the wall and reminding himself that shivering was just his body's way of trying to stay warm.

"I know that," Morgan said.

Spencer stared at him for a long moment before doing as Morgan asked. "This isn't awkward at all," he commented as Morgan reached under the blanket to undo Spencer's pants.

"I'm not looking," Morgan pointed out.

"Small comfort," Spencer replied as he felt Morgan's hands pushing his pants down to the floor. "On the bright side, the freezing water kept my knee from swelling again. And it seems unlikely at this stage that I'll lose any of my toes."

"There you go," Morgan said. "Just keep thinking like that and we'll be out of here in no time."

Once Spencer's wet clothes were off, Morgan made a nest of the rest of the blankets and helped Spencer settle down so that he was sitting between Morgan's legs.

"You hold the flashlight, I'll hold the gun," Morgan instructed. "Kind of cosy, don't you think?"

"Next time we have vacation time, this is how I'm going to spend it. Freezing in a shack in Canada," Spencer deadpanned.

Morgan laughed. "Let's both just hope that whoever rescues us is not inclined to use the phones on their cameras."

Spencer leaned against Morgan's body and soaked up all the warmth he could manage. He could think of worse people to be in this situation with. Rossi maybe. Or Emily. Or both of them.

*****

"Rossi?" Emily asked, her voice pitched low. "Do you happen to remember what the locals said was typical for wildlife out here?"

Dave looked over to where Emily was standing, one hand resting on her holster and her eyes fixed on the woods surrounding them. "Basic North American forest animals, I would assume."

When Emily didn't look away, Dave took a few steps in her direction and carefully moved his flashlight so the beam would illuminate the underbrush. The sun was slowly setting and it was just about time for them to head back to their collection point. They hadn't seen any signs of the unsub and could only hope one of the other group searching the forest had more luck. "Why?" Dave asked, feeling compelled to ask.

"Because last time I checked, the unsub was five foot eight and blond. Not seven foot something and covered in dark fur," Emily said. She finally looked away from the spot she'd been staring at and started to look back and forth. "It was just right there."

"You're sure?" Dave asked. He supposed it was possible for a bear to out and about this time of year, even though they weren't really that far from the nearest town.

"Maybe a wolf," Emily said, shining her own flashlight further into the trees.

"A seven foot something wolf?" Dave asked incredulously.

Emily shrugged, the movement obvious even in her thick coat. "It could have been standing on its hind legs."

"Right," Dave said, unwillingly picturing a wolf that was seven feet tall and standing up on its hind legs and watching them from deep in the woods. "Well, if it wasn't the unsub, then we should probably head back."

"It wasn't the unsub," Emily said immediately.

Dave oriented them in the direction of the drop off point and started back, his boots crunching on the snow as they walked. Most of his train of thought had picked up his old litany about how when he'd worked at the FBI before he would have never been sent searching the freezing woods in Canada for an unsub. It just wasn't done. Now though, the locals insisted the unsub was out there and they had the cooperation of both governments to ensure that they could apprehend him and take him back.

Personally Rossi was of the opinion that the unsub could just spend the night out there and freeze to death, and they'd come by in the morning to collect the body, but he knew better than to actually say that out loud. He still occasionally got _the look_ from Hotch that told him to stop whatever he was saying, though he'd gotten it a lot less in the past few months. Clearly Dave just wasn't trying hard enough to fulfill his responsibility as the team's resident pain in the ass.

"Rossi?" Emily asked again, crunching to a stop a few feet behind Dave.

Dave turned back, ready to tell her to just keep walking unless it was the unsub, when he heard a low growl coming from somewhere to the distant right. "I hear it," he said quietly.

Emily had her glock out and was edging closer to Dave. "What now?"

"There was a shack a little further on, let's try to make it there, slowly and smoothly. If we're approached, stand your ground and try to look as big as possible. Be prepared to fight back if it becomes necessary," Dave said, keeping his voice pitched calm and low.

They moved together, easily matching pace and style after plenty of practice at entering unsecured locations as a team. Occasionally they spotted movements in the trees surrounding them, but Emily was absolutely right that it was too big to be the unsub, or even human.

The shack was just where Dave recalled seeing it and they entered and shut the door without any hesitation.

"Will this really withstand a bear attack?" Emily asked, her light shining over the rough wooden slats that made up the walls and roof.

"I doubt it," Dave said, bending down look at the small set of supplies that had been left behind.

Emily frowned. "Then why did we come in here?"

"Because I'm reasonably sure that the bear won't attack the shack. It will see the size of it and be intimidated, and hopefully it will leave," Dave said as he dug through a metal box that contained a small lantern and some empty containers for food and water.

"Intimidated by the size? My closet is bigger than this," Emily said as she looked around the small space before kneeling down at the other side of the shack.

"Mine too," Dave admitted. "But it's still bigger than the bear. Hopefully our ride will be in the area soon and we can radio for them to come pick us up here. We'll tell them to look for a small hunter's shack on the eastern edge of the woods."

"You think this was a hunter's shack?" Emily asked as she stood and wordlessly held up the Cincinnati Reds baseball cap with a bent brim that they'd seen in surveillance photos of the unsub.

"Great," Dave said, unholstering his TRP. "They should be in radio range soon."

"With any luck the unsub only stopped here briefly and Hotch or one of the others already has him in custody," Emily said, sitting down but not unholstering her weapon.

Dave refrained, barely, from asking her when they'd ever had any luck.

*****

When JJ pushed back the sleeve of her coat for the fifth time to check her watch, Aaron gave in and checked his as well. Their scheduled pick up time was forty five minutes ago. The sun had set approximately thirty minutes ago and the already frigid temperature was dropping steadily.

"Hotchner to Rossi," Aaron said into the radio. Dave and Emily should have been picked up on the stop before them, and Reid and Morgan three stops before that. "Hotchner to Morgan, come in."

"They could have gotten delayed if one of them found the unsub," JJ suggested, her teeth chattering slightly. "Or maybe the vehicle had a problem and they had to send a replacement."

"Maybe," Aaron agreed, pulling out his cellphone to check that they really didn't have reception. He'd told the federal bureaucracy at least a dozen times that satellite phones should be considered necessities when they were traveling in areas that they knew would be unlikely to have cellphone coverage. A cost-benefit analysis wouldn't ever deem them a necessity for teams until someone died because of the lack of one, and even then it would be an uphill battle. Aaron was used to fighting those.

"They'll be here soon though," JJ said, sounding like she was talking to herself more than she was talking to Aaron.

Aaron looked around the area, using his flashlight to illuminate the frozen ground that he'd already memorized. "Let's go," he said after a moment.

"Go where?" JJ asked, even though she was already in step with Aaron.

"I saw a shack set just inside the edge of the woods. The foliage around it suggests that it hadn't been disturbed for quite some time, and we'll still be in radio range. At the very least we'll have more cover," Aaron said.

It took them about five minutes to get to the shack, and another five to fight their way through the thick trees that had grown up around the area.

"I'd say no one has been in here for a long time," JJ said once they were inside. "It's like a closet in here."

Aaron shone his flashlight on the rack of outdoor clothing that took up most of the space inside the shack. "It's possibly some kind of storage space for hunters or ice fishers," he said. At the very least, if they had to use the clothing it would help them stay warm. He hoped they wouldn't be out there long enough for that to become necessary.

After standing for about ten minutes, they both gave up and sat down on the floor. Ten minutes after that, Aaron moved so that he could put his arm around JJ's shoulders so he didn't have to watch her shiver so badly. "How's Henry?" he asked, deciding that it was a good thing they had something in common to talk about.

"Good. He's been pretty active lately. Will says he gets into just about everything and we've had to lock all the cupboards and drawers he can reach. He's pulling himself up all by himself now." JJ's expression was both happy and regretful as she turned her face away from the light. "How's Jack?"

"He's doing well. His teachers say that he's above grade level in all of his subjects, and he's on a soccer league that is practicing on an inside field during the winter," Aaron said, hoping that his expression didn't gave away his own feelings. Their job kept them away too much, they both felt it, but neither of them could imagine doing anything different.

They both looked up when they heard the cracking of a tree branch just outside the shack. Standing as quietly as they could, Aaron and JJ both unholstered their weapons and edged themselves as far out of the doorway as they could. The door swung inward and the next thirty seconds was filled with a wild scramble as they identified the unsub, the unsub realized he wasn't alone, and they pursued him a few feet into the woods before Aaron knocked him to the ground.

JJ provided cover while Aaron handcuffed the unsub and they all got back to their feet.

"Now what?" JJ asked, glancing back at the shack, but keeping her gun aimed and most of her attention on the unsub.

Aaron kept his grip firm on the unsub's arms. They couldn't go back into the shack with him, there was too likely a possibility that the unsub would manage to attack them in the small space and gain a weapon in the process. He was saved from answering by his radio flaring to life.

"Hotch, JJ, are you nearby?" Morgan's voice came through with a good deal of static.

JJ took the radio from Hotch's belt and replied. "We're at the edge of the woods. We've apprehended the unsub."

"We see your lights. We're on our way," Morgan replied.

Ten minutes later they were all back in the large vehicle, a repurposed troop transport designed for rough and frozen terrain, with the unsub secured at the front.

Aaron was about to ask what had taken so long, but he could see that Emily and Dave were both pale and looked rather frozen still. Reid was sitting with one of his legs propped up - the one with his formerly injured knee - with a blanket wrapped around his waist and his calves and feet decidedly bare. Morgan was sitting closer to him than was strictly necessary and occasionally he reached out to pat Reid's shoulder.

Deciding that he would be better off waiting for the reports to come across his desk, Aaron sat down in between one of the local police officers and JJ and smiled to himself as she told them that the unsub had all but handcuffed himself for them.


End file.
